The Philippines dismissed China’s allegations on Tuesday that its grounded warship on the contested Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea has damaged the coral reef ecosystem, instead attributing the environmental harm to Beijing.
In a statement, the Philippine task force on the South China Sea called for an independent, third-party marine scientific assessment to determine the true causes of coral reef damage in the region. “It is China who has been found to have caused irreparable damage to corals. It is China that has caused untold damage to the maritime environment, and jeopardized the natural habitat and the livelihood of thousands of Filipino fisherfolk,” the task force asserted.
On Monday, China’s Ministry of Natural Resources released a report claiming that Philippine warships have been “illegally beached” around Second Thomas Shoal near what it refers to as the Nansha Islands for an extended period, and that this has “seriously damaged the diversity, stability, and sustainability of the reef ecosystem.”
The Philippines and China have frequently clashed at the Second Thomas Shoal, where Manila has stationed a rusting warship, the BRP Sierra Madre, since 1999 to bolster its maritime claims. A small crew remains stationed on the ship. In contrast, China has engaged in extensive dredging activities, creating artificial islands in the South China Sea, which it claims as normal construction within its territory. Other nations, however, view these activities as efforts to enforce its territorial claims.
A report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies last year indicated that China’s construction activities have buried over 4,600 acres of reef.
China asserts nearly complete control over the strategic waterway, through which $3 trillion worth of trade passes annually, including areas claimed by the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Vietnam. The Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ruled in 2016 that China’s extensive claims in the South China Sea had no legal basis, a decision Beijing has refused to acknowledge.
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